Sucked down by sinking Titanic, Gracie lives to tell about it

WASHINGTON, April 19, 1912 (UP) -- A remarkable story of having gone down with the sinking Titanic and having come back from the sea with the aid of a life raft was told by Col. Archibald Gracie, of Washington D. C., who was met at the pier when the Carpathia landed by his daughter and his son-in-law, Paul N. Fabricius.

"I jumped into the sea just as the Titanic went down," said Col. Gracie. "I managed to grasp a rail on the deck above as she settled, but when she plunged down I was forced to let go and I was whirled around and around for what seemed like an interminable time.

"Eventually I came to the surface to find the sea a mass of tangled wreckage. I seized a wooden grating and later found a big cork life raft floating nearby. Another man was struggling toward it, and I helped him to get aboard it. When dawn broke there were about 20 of us on that raft, knee deep in the water. Several unfortunates, benumbed and half dead, besought us to save them, but we were forced to warn them away."

"The hours on that raft were hours of horror. We could not even turn to see if a steamer was passing and when the Carpathia hove in sight one of the men went into hysterical delirium."